My 3 Biggest Romance Writing Tips
Did you hear? I indie-published a romance novel called Rehabbing The Billionaire! You can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited, or buy a copy of the eBook on Amazon Kindle!
If you want a signed paperback, click here!
And when you’re done, I’d love if you left a review on Amazon and Goodreads!
I’ve also written 4 other romance manuscripts, I have two writing degrees (a BA in Creative Writing and an MFA in Writing for Producing for Television), and have written many many scripts and indie films since earning those degrees! All this is to say, there’s three things I’ve found to be my biggest learnings during my pivot to romance, and I wanted to share!
1. The romance is the A plot
In a genre romance, the romance should be your A plot, aka the main narrative thrust (wink) of your story. Any other individual or external plots come (wink) second (wink wink wink).
A book or film with a love story included might be romantic, and might be called a love story, but for a genre romance, not only is the romance the central plot, but there also has to be a happily ever after (or at least, a happy for now, like for a YA or new adult romance where the epilogue isn’t marriage because the characters are too young for that).
Also, just briefly: far from being a spoiler, the romance genre’s requirement of a Happily Ever After (HEA) is what extends the trust the reader needs that whatever occurs between characters or within the narrative will be resolved in favor of all (romantic) parties involved, no matter how dark, wild, or “problematic” things may appear.
Back to the A plot business, though. Interestingly enough, this is the thing I struggled with most in transitioning from mystery/comedy screenwriting to romance, because while I’ve almost always included a romance subplot (Brains is a zombie web series about a girl trying to get a boyfriend, Ace and Anxious involves a roommate crush, etc), it was never the main plot. So I’d find myself, in plotting, getting bogged down and frustrated, only to realize that I was too in the weeds for a secondary or tertiary plot that didn’t need to be that complicated, because it wasn’t what the book was about.
A romance novel is about the growing romance between two (or more, WINK) people, so anything that doesn’t serve that development needs to be reworked or simplified, and should definitely be at least lightly thematically related to whatever the conflict between the romantic parties is.
2. Include all your senses
Especially coming from screenwriting, senses beyond sight and sound were strange to me period when I delved back into prose. And being of the asexual variety personally, I’m not a super sensory-focused person (beyond lookin’) when it comes to being romantically attracted to people; I’m a (obnoxious incel voice) sapiosexual (this is a joke). And I don’t really experience sexual attraction, period. So it was definitely an adjustment, when writing spicy romance, to not only involve the various senses when two characters were sizing each other up initially, but also to consider what about those senses are important in developing an attachment and emphasizing how deeply attuned they are to each other.
What are the characters’ signature scents, and does it extrude from their pores naturally, or is it from soap, aftershave, perfume, lotion, etc? Is it a result of their day to day work (does your carpenter character always smell a little like sawdust? Does your outdoorsy character always smell like sweat and sunshine?)? What does the scent of this character evoke in their future partner, and what does it say about who they are and how they might be remembered during a third act breakup?
What does a character taste like, during a kiss… or more? How does a character’s voice sound, during different times of the day and filtered through different emotions?
All of these things are important, and the fact that the other character is noticing is also important.
3. The dreaded miscommunication trope… is actually bad plotting
The miscommunication trope gets a lot of hate from readers, for good reason, but most conflict, to some degree, involves a miscommunication. If everyone said what they mean at every moment, it wouldn’t feel realistic, and it would mean media about relationships are boring as hell (with some important but limited exceptions). So I think what most readers are reacting to when they say they hate the “miscommunication trope” is actually just bad plotting. What they’re reacting to is contrived set ups that don’t feel truthful to the characters or situation in order to drum up drama or move something else along.
The trick is to make sure the source of the miscommunication is consistent with the characters you’ve built, is motivated both internally and externally, and couldn’t be solved with a single sentence (or, at least, it’s obvious why someone wouldn’t say the single sentence, because of the aforementioned characterizations and internal/external motivations).
It will still be frustrating, because miscommunication is always frustrating (especially when you, the reader, have all the information), but it should also seem inevitable. If they were able to navigate the miscommunication before it occurred/got too far, they would have to be fundamentally different people.
Bri Castellini is an independent filmmaker, a romance author, and, regrettably, a podcaster. She’s known for the 2017 short film Ace and Anxious (writer/director, 160k+ views on YouTube) and for her podcasts Burn, Noticed and Breaking Out of Breaking In, covering the USA television show Burn Notice and practical filmmaking advice, respectively. She can lick her elbow (not clickbait). Full work history and ways to hire her as a consultant can be found on her website BriCastellini.com
